Ranking the top 20 college football coaches for 2021

9. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern

Before Pat Fitzgerald took over the Northwestern football program in 2006, Randy Walker was at the helm for seven years. In those seven years, they made only three bowl games and had three seasons with four or fewer wins. Before Walker was Gary Barnett who was sub-.500 in five of his seven campaigns as head coach. And somehow, it was even worse for the Wildcats before those two.

That context is necessary to understand the magnitude of the job Fitzgerald has done at Northwestern. He’s finally getting recognition for that after winning the Big Ten West in two of the last three years but he’s also produced three 10-win seasons and, in 15 seasons, he’s only had five seasons below .500, one of which was his first season and another was a 6-7 year that concluded with a bowl loss.

Put simply, the academic rigors of Northwestern raise the level of difficulty in recruiting for Fitzgerald in a major way. But his ability to both identify unsung talent, develop his players and consistently have his teams ready for any challenge is exceedingly admirable. He’s a consistent winner at a program that’s not accustomed to that.

And maybe the best feather in his cap is that he almost always bounces back when the Wildcats have a down year. After going 6-7 in 2011, they were 10-3 the next year. They went to 5-7 for the next two years but followed up with another 10-3 year. Finally, after going 3-9 in 2019, they were 7-2 last season. That’s the mark of a strong program-building head coach.